U.S. stocks rallied strongly Thursday after China confirmed a new round of high-level trade talks in Washington set for early October sparking hopes for an early end to the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 272.68 points or 1.41% while the S&P gained 38.22 or 1.3% and the Nasdaq jumped 139.95 or 1.75%.

China announced the 13th round of high-level talks in its official media Thursday following a phone conversation between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. A statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce said the two sides agreed to take concrete action to promote favorable conditions for the talks and pledged to keep in close contact. Working teams were expected to begin negotiations in mid-September in advance of the October session.

Markets are expecting the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting Sept. 17-18 to stave off the effects of a slowing global economy.

Investors found optimism in fresh data from the Institute for Supply Management, which reported economic activity in the nonmanufacturing sector grew in August for the 115th straight month despite worries over the cost of goods imported from China. The report was way more upbeat than Tuesday’s manufacturing sector report that warned business confidence is softening and noted an end to 35 months of expansion.

Stocks also were buoyed by jobs news. ADP reported the U.S. added 195,000 non-farm jobs in August, up 66,000 among small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Midsize businesses added 77,000 jobs and companies with more than 500 employees added 52,000. The only categories that lost workers were natural resources and mining (2,000) and the information industry (6,000). Education and health gained the most employees (58,000), followed by leisure and hospitality (42,000) and trade, transportation and utilities (39,000).

The Department of Labor reported initial jobless claims for the week ending Aug. 31 were up 1,000 from the previous week’s revised numbers to 217,000, with the four-week moving average 216,250, up 1,500 from the previous four-week average.

Business messaging firm Slack Technologies (WORK) shares took a beating in early trading after forecasting slower revenue and increasing competition but managed to turn up more than 3 percent late in the day.

The biggest gainers on the day were Edesa Biotech Inc. (EDSA), Modern Media Acquisition Corp. (MMDM) and Lands’ End Inc. (LE). The biggest losers were TeleNav Inc. (TNAV), Mallinckrodt PLC (MNK) and Meredith Corp. (MDP). Mallinckrodt's plunge following a Bloomberg report it was considering bankruptcy as it faces lawsuits resulting from the opioid crisis.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 2.12% and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.96%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was off slightly at 0.03%.

In Europe, the London FTSE closed off 0.63% while the pound was up 0.57% against the dollar. The German DAX was up 0.84%.

Crude oil futures were off 0.07% while precious metals futures also were lower, with gold off 2.18% and silver down 4.44%.

U.S. Treasurys also were higher. The yield on the 10-year not was 1.566% percent while the 30-year bond rose to 2.052%.

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